Ignorance Drowns Out Precaution

The New York Times went into damage control mode yesterday after Nick Bilton, a tech columnist and a rising star at the newspaper, suggested that precaution is the best approach to the use of cell phones and wearable electronics.

No sooner had Bilton’s column hit print than Margaret Sullivan, the Times’ Public Editor, chastised Bilton for his naive analysis. (It was posted on the Web a day earlier.) Sullivan targeted the lack of “sophisticated evaluation of serious research.” His biggest blunder, according to many readers, was quoting Dr. Joe Mercola, an Internet health entrepreneur. It’s worth mentioning that Mercola is no technophobe. He talked to Bilton on a cell phone using a Bluetooth headset...